The practitioner: The difference between the first and the second level
One of the basic problems for the practitioner is related to the fact that the beginner does not focus his attention on where he might be in the nearest future. He is in a state of expectation, thinking that things will naturally clarify themselves, they will come naturally. As a result, he is not simply incapable of moving ahead, but disguised under new ‘garment’ his old problems get reinforced and he starts actually moving backwards. After some time has passed and he has learned a certain set of exercises or has maintained himself in a certain set of conditions, he starts thinking he is already ‘advanced’. However is such a condition exceptional? In other words, has he really plunged deeper or has he simply changed one exterior for another preserving and sometimes even aggravating his interior?
The characteristic features of people on the first level and on the second are in fact determined by the work they do and their understanding. If this understanding ability is not developed then one’s actions remain simply in the lines of collecting and gathering, and are not related to processing let alone experience. The first level cannot be characterized by systematic attitude or an actual ability to focus on the tasks at hand, therefore the formula for development is not comprehensible but remains simply acceptable. On the first level we do everything formally, while on the second level we free ourselves from formality.
On the first level our mind simply memorizes and develops a certain volume. In this phase you are like a collector who gathers stuff but cannot judge or define what he’s doing and above all you are unable to even feel this since everything is to you a simple reactionary process. It is in no way different from all you other experiences, the only distinction is that through it you’re creating prerequisites for consequent changes.
The most crucial and frequent mistake (which is even inevitable in our modern world) is that people who are on the first level believe they are in fact doing something. Interestingly enough only those who have come to the second level can understand that they have not yet begun to achieve anything because people who are on level one are certain that they have been practicing for a very long time. However no matter what people on this first level do, they do it from the perspective of their own understanding and experience and not from the perspective of understanding the practice.
Only after accumulating certain experience in the practice, people can view things from the perspective of this new experience - here in fact lies the difference between the first and the second level. People’s ego is so unconscious and uncontrollable that it binds man by the qualities he was born with or has possibly even consolidated during his life. What’s really risky for all beginners is that they measure everything in terms of time and their own reactions to what can be seen or done. And that prevents them from actually hearing and understanding what pertains to space or rhythm.
Here’s a very simple example: real practice and real development start only after you have achieved internal harmony. However what is inner harmony? It’s when you have created the conditions for proportional existence of your energy and have established a link to it, in other words your energy, as a minimum, systematically nourishes your brain and your mind is at peace. So the question is: Have you reached this state? If you have, this would mean that your conditions for existence have changed as well as the functioning of your mind, i.e. this is a physical change.
This is what distinguishes the second level from the first. In other words until you create the suitable conditions for developing your potential you’ll be using up whatever is available. This is not called practice. On the second level you should understand that everything you’ve done so far you’ve been doing formally for a number of reasons.
And one of these reasons is that whatever is not formal is out of your abilities. When on the first level, one not so much doesn’t want but simply cannot recognize his own imperfection (even if he says otherwise). Moreover, he cannot compare his current state with what he could achieve. And that’s because he lacks not only an inner reference point but also an external one.
He cannot see, feel or even analyze in basic terms the state of another human being who has achieved such a condition. Yet a lot surrounds the external that man naturally leans on since he is a part of external underdevelopment. Since his mind is not centered it cannot strengthen itself, it simply does not have the necessary power to do so. And when you reach the second level your first task is to make your mind understand.
The second level presupposes that the person understands what he should work on and most importantly he understands how valuable this work is. You’ll realize how ‘esoteric’ your previous work has been because you’ve lacked the tools for understanding what you’re doing. We must say that a lot of people never go to the second level but since they’ve practiced for 5-7 years and they believe they’re professionals (or for some other reason), they start teaching others. However this is not really teaching but simply an attempt to prove that they know something.
Now, how can you know if you’ve reached the second level or not? It’s very simple. The second level is about working with your effort. In order to do this you need to at least have a vessel, in other words you need proportions and a mind that can focus on and maintain the attention on the tasks it has set to achieve.
Let’s take for example simply position: one sits down on the floor to meditate and practice. What does he feel? He feels that he’s in a position that is comfortable and that he believes is correct. In this situation if the body does not allow him to sit properly then he doesn’t yet understand how to properly develop himself in order to improve his posture or position in the future. The position does not allow him to maintain his task and his mind does not have the power to work on the effort in this task.
The distinction between the first and the second level lies in the fact that while in the first level you are constantly looking for and always finding external excitation, while in the second level you are in a state of inner excitation. In the second level you should above all not allow yourself to fall back to level one since you have objectively raised your frequency yet you can easily go back, therefore the already developed forms of interaction with society are very risky for you since they lower this frequency.
As a matter of fact the second level sets the beginning of the battle for inner quality. Your perception changes not only in relation to yourself but also in relation to the people around you and, most importantly, your values change. The second level requires that you conquer yourself. If at the first level everyone else is at fault, at the second level the only one to blame is you. If you keep searching for someone to blame outside of yourself or you believe that it’s someone else’s fault that you don’t possess something or you cannot achieve something, then you are still far from the second level.
Generally, the difference between the first level and the second is that in the first level you go through life not understanding the force that makes you go. Does anyone ever ask himself why they move? Or how in fact do they move? Your body is unconscious! Some effort is produced that makes you move yet you are not the one who controls it. However when you understand the effort of motion you’ll be able to control your movements. This is already the second level.
Try to stop someone on the street and ask him: ‘Do you feel your feet when you walk?’. They’d think you’re crazy or dumb, while I’d say that people who walk and do not understand the laws that govern the way they walk, do not belong to themselves. The fact that his arms hang about his body like spaghetti does not make him a man. I believe that if I don’t feel the measure of my arm it’s like it’s not there. And all people live without even realizing that arms have their own measure. Ask any person: ‘Do you know the measure of your arms?’. Of course, if you ask someone in Jamaica, he’ll reply: ‘Yeeeeah, maan!’. However this is probably the only place on Earth where people understand measure or ultimately live in accord with the rhythm of their breathing that fills them. Just like that, with no definitions.
The point here is that the second level provides you with an understanding of the measure – the measure of everything. You understand the basis of your speech even if you speak yourself. You have to be able to listen to yourself. You’ll never learn to listen to others if you don’t learn to listen to yourself! Sometimes I don’t listen or I stop listening because I hear that the words do not belong to the person who speaks them. Why would I have to listen to someone who does not understand where this flow of words comes from? Who doesn’t even listen to himself?
What’s most important, of course, is to feel the measure of your movements because it determines the circulation of your energy. I can even say something else: there’s a measure for your breathing, a measure for happiness, a measure for all qualities, this is why I believe that one must learn how to weigh everything in order to learn how to develop himself. In order to achieve this he should move on to the second level of existence – where one actually works on oneself. When you start working on yourself all your concepts will change.
Let’s take for example the concept of love. In our modern world people cannot love, because they’ve lost the measure of their breathing, the measure of their existence, so everything they say about love is simply a lie. Because they lack the measure for love! And if you lack the measure you lack the ability to develop. If you cannot develop your love, then this is no love but simply a reaction. Love is an individual quality of every particular person and the thing that provokes it is imply a consequence. What is important here is that we learn how to develop the qualities that are important for us.
When on the second level you must first of all teach yourself to look for the measure in everything in order to be able to develop you power and your understanding. You must also work and work again until you reach the state of irreversibility when you have reached a vibration that is not lowered.
You cannot be better, you cannot be happier, you cannot have more if you don’t change yourself. For example, if you want to improve certain personal indicators, you should first of all strengthen your energy.
The most fatal consequences may follow from your thinking that if you want something you should do it. In order to do this, you should first learn the art of ability, and desire is simple a reaction of the lack of ability. Believe me, I’ve seen tens of thousands of practicing people who have maintained the same qualities they’ve had from their birth, and the few exceptions are those who’ve become part of someone else’s process and unconsciously dwell in it. If you’re not happy about something in your life, if you want to improve it, you must change your destiny. Change your destiny, please…
The second level is a beginning – it’s uncomfortable because in it you understand what you have to do. You’ve generally prepared yourself yet things don’t come naturally. Roughly speaking when you were living an unconscious life you never paid attention to the though ‘I’m a bag full of garbage’, and now you understand: ‘I’m a bag full of garbage’. This is not a comfortable state… When one lives in the garbage he doesn’t think about his living conditions, yet when he leaves the garbage heap, he understands where he’s lived however he cannot yet live outside the garbage heap.
While practicing on the second level you should not follow the formula: ‘If I don’t know what I’m doing I should know what to do when I don’t know what I’m doing’. You should constantly control your task. And your task is the first level of the effort.
The first thing in the art of learning is to materialize your task - this will help you free yourself from being overhasty or form waiting for too long. During the first level everyone waits which is why everyone suffers. Until you establish the effort that can switch your frequency, you’ll exist in the first level or an even lower one.
23 march 2012
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